Five o'clock the next morning found T. B. and myself already in the bathroom. For the whole school of some three hundred boarders, there were only about thirteen open standing aluminum showers and about eight buckets to be used in turns

Certainly one of the most stressful jobs in contemporary society is that of the air traffic controller. . . . This pressure, combined with the ever-present fear of causing a crash or collision (known with studied casualness as an "aluminum shower"), places controllers under tremendous stress on the job.

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton play two air-traffic controllers who are prickly and complex. . . . They use cynicism to protect themselves from the terrors of the job. One guy "has an aluminum shower in his future".

SAC made a big deal about getting everywhere the B-52's flew exactly on time. . . . [I]f you were late and the next aircraft scheduled in was early there was an increased possibility of an aluminum shower.

(literally) A party or similar event at which aluminum household items are given, as for a wedding.

A lovely kitchen show was given her by her sister, Evelyn Van Dyke, and an aluminum shower by Dorothy Kroone and Alice Parks Messmore. She received many lovely gifts and a good time is reported by all.

(figuratively) An event at which people give household items made of aluminum to the war effort.

c 1940, United States. Office of Production Management, Press releases:

The 0ffice of Production Management, the 0PM, has directed the 0ffice of Civilian Defense to conduct and "Aluminum Shower". In other words, we are to collect all the available old aluminum in order to turn it over to the Government.

1940, Minneapolis, volume 8-10:

William S. Knudsen, director-general of O. P. M., has advised General R. B. Rathbun, director of the Minneapolis aluminum shower committee, to leave no possible source of scrap aluminum untouched because of the "critical shortage"

Most of you remember the "aluminum shower" which the American housewives gave Uncle Sam about eight months ago. Well, the Office of Emergency Management has been trying to find out what happened to all the pots and pans